Weekend Money Diary #5: Volunteering and Farmer’s Market

I love tracking my expenses in a spreadsheet, but as an avid reader of the money diaries at Refinery29 and The Luxe Strategist, I thought it’d be fun to share my weekend spending in the same storytelling format for my #WeekendMoneyDiary segment.

FRIDAY

I leave the office 20 minutes earlier than usual. I’m rushing to get home to see Ari, who just received a verbal offer from a company he’s excited about. This is a huge deal for him and us, this job search has been an exhausting, self-esteem killing, two-year process.

Ari picks me up at the bus stop and we head over to my house. His family ordered from the neighborhood deli earlier today and he knew I’ve been craving their veggie sub so he’s brought it over for me.

We try to figure out what to do tonight. Should we go to the movies? Sorry to Bother You and Won’t You Be My Neighbor are both playing way too far away. Deciding on a movie to watch on Netflix takes way too long so we don’t attempt to. Instead, I end up reading some blog posts on my computer and Ari relaxes on the couch.

My family is in South America for vacation so it’s only my dad and I holding down the fort. He calls and lets me know he’s on his way and asks if we want anything from the supermarket. Ari and I request ice cream – cookies and cream and cookie dough.

My dad comes home with the ice cream and sushi; he recently found out that after a certain time our supermarket will label all unsold sushi as 50% off. I’m surprisingly hungry again so I dive in on the sushi and skip the ice cream. Ari leaves shortly after we eat and since I need to be up early, I fall right asleep.

SATURDAY

I wake up at 7am because I’m taking public transportation to my volunteer – one bus then a train ride. I take Char out to do her business and walk to the corner to get the bus stop number to find out when it’s coming. I guess I was wrong in thinking the bus passes every 30 minutes because the next one is in an hour and a half, which would make me late to my volunteer work.

When I’m back inside I check Lyft and the ride is going to cost me $27.49, I don’t want to pay but I have no choice. I schedule it and get in the shower. As soon as I’m out, I receive a text from my Lyft driver, he’s 15 minutes away and 30 minutes early! I cancel the ride and call Ari. He agrees to let me borrow his car!

He comes over at 8:50am and we look at over the Google Maps directions. It wants me to take a different route because of some road closures. I have zero data or storage on my phone so not knowing 100% how to get to my destination is enough to convince Ari to drive me instead.

I finally get to my volunteer work at 9:30am. I’m thankful for Ari that I was able to save money but I can’t expect this to be the case all the time so I’ll need to figure out the public transportation beforehand next time.

I’m out of volunteering at 4:10pm, my dad called me earlier and asked if I needed a ride so I head to the train station to take the train to where my dad is. He picks me up and we drive home.

When we get home I realize Charlotte is extremely matted. No surprise since I only brush her when she gets a shower. I read online that brushing her more often will help minimize the shedding. It has gotten worse the past several weeks. Ari comes over while I’m brushing her and eats his dinner with us outside. After an hour I’m finally done and the stack of fur is huge. She doesn’t look perfect, but I’ll need to buy better tools to get all the spots.

I’m feeling ready to sit down and relax with Ari. He wasn’t going to come over since he can’t stay long – early morning shift. But seeing each other even if only a couple hours is better than nothing.

Once Ari leaves around 9:30pm, I’m tired and decide I’ll have an early night too. I’m asleep by 10:15pm.

SUNDAY

It feels amazing to have a good night sleep. I wake up naturally 6:30am and decide to take a long jog today, longer than usual. I want to switch up my routine, I leave my house at 7:10am and come back around 8:40am, and because I STILL don’t have a Fitbit band I can’t count my miles. I need one ASAP if I’m going to start training for a half marathon.

I immediately hit the shower when I get back, I have a lot of grocery shopping to do today and Ari will be picking me up right after his shift is done. At 10:15am Ari picks me up with breakfast on hand and we head over to his place to eat. I have an everything bagel with cream cheese. My favorite. He quickly showers and we leave for the farmer’s market.

I found a recipe on The Minimalist Baker for vegan meatballs so I came here for some of the ingredients as well as my salad for work. I recently came across this blog and am hooked. I don’t normally try recipes because I used to believe I couldn’t follow them but I’m inspired by how easy she makes the recipes look. I buy shallots, red and green peppers, cucumber, fresh marinara sauce, salad mix and apple cider donuts (Ari wanted them). – $22.10

I drop off Ari and continue my food shopping. I go to the supermarket for the things I couldn’t get at the farmer’s market – cranberries, pasta, and beans. – $10.58

A quick pit stop at home to pick up a library book and drop off my groceries before heading to Target. I need cleaning supplies and other household supplies, so I’m happy to see a coupon for a $15 Target gift card if I spend more than $50 on this. I know I will use all this stuff at some point so I double up on paper towels and hand soap. While I’m here and have $15 off, I decide it’s really time for the Fitbit band. I spend a lot but I won’t have to come back for a while and I received $15 off, so it’s all good right? $99.56

Target was my last stop for shopping, but I still need to stop by the library to return my book and renew my card. I drive to Ari’s to drop off the car and he takes me home. I really underestimated how long food shopping would take, it’s 2:30pm and I haven’t even started cooking. I’m cooking for four today since I invited my sister and my brother-in-law over.

Food is served at 6pm, this recipe took longer than I expected. The food is delicious and everyone except my dad think so. My dad thinks I tried to trick him into thinking it was meat, but I remind him that I would never do that because I don’t eat meat and certainly don’t cook it. He is very stubborn when it comes to food so I’m happy my bro-in-law steps in to advocate for my food.

Sundays are for cleaning. I wash all the dinner plates, vacuum the floors and dust my nightstand. Charlotte fur everywhere. I’m hot and sweaty so I need another shower. When I’m nice and clean I sit down and read before calling Ari and going to bed. Sleeping early this weekend has felt really good and I hope to keep it going for the rest of the week. We’ll see.